8 Ways to Say I Do: Creative Wedding Vows from Real Brides

Trying to write your own wedding vows, but don't know where to start? Take some inspiration from these real brides who are sharing how they personalized their own "I dos" on their big day. Some mixed up the traditional wording, while others took it a step further by breaking out into song or getting their guests involved.

"We wrote our own vows. I memorized mine; he read his from a slip of paper, fake gave up halfway through, and had the band 'say it better' by serenading me with a rendition of Journey's 'Faithfully'. Needless to say, there wasn't a dry eye in the house." — Cortney M.

"My husband I wrote our own vows. We didn't rehearse or read each other's before hand. Unknowingly, we both added the quote, 'You are my constant' from one of our favorite shows, Lost. It was amazing! We laughed and couldn't believe we had both added it." — Margot H.

"I walked down the aisle to Greg Laswell's 'How The Day Sounds', which has the lyric 'Everything that I knew of love, I was a long, long way off.' I included this in my vows because before I met him, my husband was everything I never knew I wanted. I then ended my vows with Frank Sinatra's "The Best Is Yet to Come". He had everyone laughing when he started his vows with a promise that he wouldn't make any Batman or James Bond references. Then, he had everyone in tears when he talked about the love he admired in the marriages of both sets of his grandparents.

All in all, we had some pretty great promises to each other." — Amy G.

"We wrote our own and were married under the Manhattan Bridge. The train kept interrupting the vows. For one of them I said, 'Hell yeah!' just because I was screaming so much." — Bridget B.

"We wrote our own vows. My husband started with, 'You squeak when you hit a pothole. I can tell which adorable animal you are looking at on the Internet by the pitch and duration of your squeal.' He made everyone laugh and made me cry during his amazing vows of love for me." — Morgan B.

"We wrote our own vows and also our own version of a ketubah, our contract with each other. Both, especially what my husband wrote, were moving, loving, and hilarious. But our extra special twist in the ceremony was passing out 'ceremony cards' to all our guests in advance. These cards were templates for each guest to comment on what he/she believed love, commitment, or marriage to be. Guests then had a chance to read their responses impromptu during the ceremony. I loved this part! We collected all the cards at the reception and put them in a book.

I kept all our wedding gift cards too, but the ceremony cards are a much better record of who was there that day and how they shared their belief in love and actually participated in our vows with us." — Jacqueline H.

"We did the repeat-after-the-rabbi vows, but instead of the usual private ketubah signing before the ceremony, we did that in front of all guests, and took that time to each make a statement about why we were marrying the other. My husband brought the whole house to tears." — Courtney S.

"At the very end of my vows, I said, 'Where you invest your love, you invest your life," which is from 'Awake My Soul' by Mumford and Sons. It was very fitting because I have a tattoo on my arm that says 'Awake my soul'!" — Katie A.